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I Love My Job, Do You? Is It Time To Change?

Firstly, I just wanted to say Happy New Year and goodbye to 2012 and hello 2013! The key is to keep on smiling. How often do you do this while you’re at work?  Running a business where you have so many people to answer to, can be both demanding and rewarding.

Not only do I have a business with employees that work on the back-end development of the website, I also have to oversee the work of front end designers, sales & PR team along with working on getting investment and dealing with current investors. This alone, is an exhausting task without even including meetings with my account, solicitor, recruiters, hosting company and channel partners… Phew, I’m exhausted just writing about all of the day-to-day adventures I have to deal with.

You can look at life in two ways. One you cup is always half empty where you never get anything finished, you have forgotten to call your accountant again, and the reminder comes through the door from HMRC and life starts getting you down. Your energy is low, the atmosphere in the office is quiet and everyone is looking busy. Or, you can look at your cup half full where you can embrace the amazing opportunity to build something where you are proud to say “WE did that” and each morning wake up with a smile and bring that positive energy into every part of your day.

Most of us have to take that lovely train journey in the morning (don’t forget the headphones) to work. Walk with a purpose and maybe pop into Lola’s and and pick up a box of 12 blue velvet cupcakes, for everyone to enjoy. You arrive a couple of minutes late, but that does not matter as you walk through the door with a smile and treats for everyone.

Everything you do takes you closer and closer to that moment, the dream, the light bulb, the vision you had of building something great. Let people see the value in what you have to offer and help them grow their business or make life that little bit easier and help them focus on the important things in life.

Four years ago, I started a business called LifeStyleAgent, and at the time I truly believed we had come up with a business that would help people have better lives, by looking at the 12 most important areas of life. 12 months later and thousands of pounds spent on building and designing an online website, we decided to close the business. Why?
1. I stopped having fun
2. I stopped smiling
3. I realised the idea was what I wanted, not what the market needed

Why am I sharing this with you now? Because it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. Yes it was a hard decision to make but I knew it was the right decision.

During this time I continued working with amazing business owners and shared my 20 years of knowledge to help them and their business. It was during these moments I realised a gap in the market. So I did three things;
1. I did my research
2. I found my industry mentors
3. I partnered with a digital agency

Within 3 months of finding this need in the market, Gloople launched it’s first website in January 2011. Today we are the UK’s 1st “Social Sharing” SaaS ecommerce platform designed for start-ups and small businesses to have a big brand experience, offering a multi-channel environment. I write to you today as the Founder of a Million Pound Business (you can read the full story here)

The moral of this story is, love what you do and do it for the right reasons.

I would love to hear your story, please feel free to email me or call me.

The Power of Pinterest

“Expressing passion for a hobby is just as easy as browsing for your next purchase. But what is even more addictive about the site – a collection of collections – is that it’s just as much about the users as it is about what they’ve posted” – Mashable

As the newest Social Network on the Social Media scene, I, along with my colleagues have invested a lot of time into Pinterest to see if it is worth the hype. I can safely say, it definitely is.

So what is Pinterest? Pinterest is a content curation platform which allows users to organise and share beautiful and interesting content they find on the web.

Pinterest is now the third most popular social network, behind Facebook and Twitter which is a great achievement considering it has only been around for two years. Pinterest has proved its worth by driving more referral traffic than Youtube, LinkedIn, Myspace and Google+ put together.

The Pinterest mobile app has been downloaded over 250,000 times and the newest social network is projected to account for 40% of social media driven purchases (60% Facebook). The current average purchase for Pinterest, is $80.00.

Not only is Pinterest growing at an astounding pace, it is becoming the new “it” network for the sheer appearance and exclusivity as it is an invite only platform (unless you want to apply for an account which can take up to two weeks). Pinterest is retaining and engaging users 2-3 times as efficiently as Twitter was at a similar time in history.

The powerful thing about Pinterest is that it not only gives you the freedom to share your images with your audience, but you can also sell inside of Pinterest with a tool called Pin2Sell. You also have the ability to search for certain products within their sector. As a business, being on Pinterest will work in your favor if you share engaging pictures. You will not receive any “likes” or “repins” for images that aren’t “Pinteresting”.

For a company that has only been on the scene for just over two years, it has been valued at just under $1.5 Billion. This valuation holds its own power. It proves that we respond to visually stimulating images or videos as a way to engage with a business.

There are some great infographics, presentations and blogs out there, giving you a breakdown of some great Pinterest Statistics and tips to utilising Pinterest.

A Successful Business is not just about #SocialMedia

Having your own business is a great achievement and can be a lot of fun, however if you want your business to be successful, you need to take your sales and marketing seriously.

For many years now, I have been working with start-ups and small businesses helping them build a business with strong foundations with a clear unique selling proposition (USP) and a defined customer acquisition journey.

The online and offline marketing can be the most exciting part of growing a business but the key point to remember is that whatever you place online, will stay online regardless of you deleting it. The chances are, someone somewhere would have already seen it.

It’s simple. Social Media standing alone will fall alone. Using Social Media as your ONLY marketing outlet will not work. You need to have a marketing strategy and customer retention strategy for your business. Yes, there are a lot of businesses that spend a lot of time on their Social Media who have been successful because they have a complete marketing mix strategy, as there is only so much Social Media can do for you and your business for your Sales, Marketing and Customer Service.

Having worked in Digital Marketing for over 5 years, I understand the hype and I have proven case studies of how successful social media can be for a business if integrated into a monthly marketing strategy. I think it’s important to address the issue of Social Media as stand-alone marketing. I get a lot of people coming up to me after my seminars at trade shows telling me that they are enjoying using social media for their business. This is great and it does make me smile however, when I ask them if they are doing any other marketing, their answer is usually no, what else can I be doing?

With successful Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and the new kid on the block, Pinterest; it’s very apparent that using Social Media correctly will convert into sales. Don’t get me wrong, Social Media can be personal however, I still have traditional face-to-face meetings with clients as well as phone calls, as part of my customer acquisition journey. When someone contacts me, they may do it through social media, email, phone call or at a networking event and all of that’s fine however, each on their own is just the part of the sales cycle. All of these combined must be a part of your customer retention strategy.

You will also need to use a slightly different technic for each network. What works on Twitter, might not work on Facebook. Despite the obvious differences, Facebook is not a push platform, so don’t use it like it. The businesses that over populates their Facebook page with regular daily posts are likely to lose followers, rather than gain them. Twitter on the other hand, works differently and I tend to tweet around 5 times a day, with value added content designed for my target audience.

If your business is struggling, don’t turn to social media to save it. You can’t just use social media in the hope of it saving your business because believe me, it won’t.

Social Media can’t fix a broken business. Fix your business first then turn to social media and utilise the amazing free networks and tools out there.

Facebook for Business

With over 900 million users on Facebook, there is the potential to reach more customers when using the right tools on Mark Zuckerberg’s social network. The ‘Like’ button or ‘Comment’ box is used around 3.2 billion times each day. Yes, 3.2 billion. Don’t forget the 300 million photo uploads each day.

When I hold my keynote seminars at various events/tradeshows I always ask the audience to raise their hand if they have a Facebook account. At least 90% of the audience raise their hand. When I ask them if they have a Facebook Business Page, only 50% of that original 90% raise their hand. Why? Because they don’t see the potential Facebook has to offer.

Holding the largest tech IPO in History with acquisitions like Instagram and LightBox, Facebook has proved its worth to its users. Despite the slight drop in shares, Facebook is still at the top of the Social Network Hierarchy.

Did you know you can create an online shop within Facebook? Take your business to your consumers and let them buy your products where they feel most comfortable; inside of Facebook.

If you would like to find out more about Facebook for Business, I will be holding a free webinar on August 23rd at 4:00pm. You can book your place here. Limited to 100 spaces so be quick!

I will also be speaking at Pure London from 19th – 21st August. On the 19th I will be holding a Facebook Workshop, on the 20th I will be holding a Social Media for Business Seminar and on the 21st I will be holding a Pinterest Workshop. If you would like to see my talk times, please click here and if you would like to book your free ticket to this event, please click here.

Do you have a Facebook business page?

How to run a Webinar to Promote your Business

With the internet now a crucial way of generating sales and leads for a business, it’s only logical to start running webinars on a regular basis. For a Webinar to be a success, it takes a lot of planning and work. If you want to offer great customer service and ultimately deliver a great Webinar then keep reading for my tips on how to do exactly that.

When looking at a Webinar provider, you need to do your research. It has taken me a long time to find the right company that works for what I want to deliver. You need to think about how many attendees you would like. I have limited mine to 100. If you would like your webinar to be record, you will also need to look into this as some software providers do not offer this service.

After choosing a webinar provider, you need to look at how you are going to present your business. Your presentation must be in line with your brand otherwise you will be unlikely to receive any business. Make sure your branding is correct and you have checked the spelling and grammar of your presentation as there is nothing worse than one of your attendee’s pointing out an error you have made.

Keep your presentation simple and effective. Get straight to the point and don’t over populate your presentation slides. You will also need to run through your presentation with a colleague before presentation to iron out any issues you may be having. You also need to discourage participants from multi-tasking during your presentation, so that you have their full attention. Ask questions, allow for short discussions and conduct polls during your webinar to determine if participants understand your material. Remember, you won’t be able to see them, so it may be harder to judge how well your presentation works.

Struggling to get people to attend your webinar? Speak to your audience. They are a part of your community for a reason. Focus on email marketing and social media to generate interest in your webinar. You may find your attendee list going up in numbers just by tweeting and posting on Facebook. News travels fast in social media so make sure you utilise all of the tools available to you. Also worth noting that if you have a blog, you should use this as one of your outlets to promote your webinar.

What are your top tips for running a Webinar for your business?